Thrown from one court to another, saddened by a sentence that surprised even the Minister of the Interior Matteo Piantedosi: “They hope to be released”. Five “policemen” jailed for 12 years got sentences of four to five years for obeying orders to arrest Alma Shalabayeva (pictured), the wife of Kazakh dissident Muktar Ablyazov, and their daughter Alua. The Florence Court of Appeal presided over by Judge Giampiero Borraccia confirmed the first instance verdict against Rome Flying Squad director Renato Cortese, former Immigration Office head Maurizio Improta and their collaborators Francesco Stampacchia, Luca Armeni and Vincenzo Tramma, confirming the first instance sentence in Perugia (overturned on appeal and overturned by the Court of Cassation in Florence) with a five-year permanent ban from holding public office. “A very difficult but correct decision, it is difficult to go against other state officials,” Shalabayeva commented. “We will appeal to the Court of Cassation,” said Cortese’s lawyers, Franco Coppi and Ester Molinaro.
Even Florence prosecutor Luigi Bocciolini was not convinced by the charges against them, kidnapping as a consequence of some irregularities in the expulsion procedure, so he asked for their release. On the night between 28 and 29 May 2013, the woman was arrested by police at a villa in Casalpalocco in Rome with a fake passport and expelled to Kazakhstan. On July 5, Ablyazov appealed to Prime Minister Enrico Letta and the expulsion was overturned. The Rome prosecutor’s office opened an investigation which, for jurisdiction, was transferred to Perugia. On 9 June 2022 Peruvian appeals judges had acquitted everyone “because the facts did not exist”, but in October 2023 the Cassation then overturned the acquittals.
“I am close to five managers, with an important curriculum and a life spent asserting the principles of legality and justice – said the owner of the Ministry of the Interior in the evening – this is a very complex affair, with unpredictable results”. Trade union leaders lamented “yet another loss suffered by the police” and recalled that the Prosecutor’s Office itself had recognized the regularity of the procedure. “It is difficult to carry out assigned tasks and meet expectations without taking personal risks,” stressed Piantedosi.
This affair reopens old wounds: even Cortese – the man who arrested him
Giovanni Brusca – hit by a curse that other anti-mafia cops like Mario Mori or Sergio De Caprio have seen on the gridiron: one remembers his closeness to Giuseppe Pignatone, the former prosecutor who ended up in the dust.
